Mining company workers protest non-payment of salaries

Several workers attached to K&M Mining were penniless for the holiday as they were given the royal run around for their salaries. One such worker is Danny Persaud of Sara Johanna on the East Bank of Demerara, who is employed as a driver.

He recently reached out to Guyana Times to vent his frustrations while noting that he along with several other employees of the company who did not receive their salaries have made official complaints to the Labour Ministry. The father of two said that he has been working at the company for just over a year.
He explained that an agreement was made between him and the management of the company for a $300,000 per month salary to perform his duties of transporting fuel and goods to the company’s interior locations.
He said that for December 2020, he was given an advance payment of $188,000 and was promised that he would receive the balance before the holidays.
But almost one month later, Persaud said that he is yet to receive the outstanding payments and that calls to his boss’ phone are going unanswered.
“People leaving the work because this man ain’t paying. Me and four other staffers went to the Labour Ministry where we made a complaint and they told us to come back.” The other aggrieved workers he speaks of are drivers, porters and sawmen.
“Me and them came from Port Kaituma. We spend a month there and when we come back to Georgetown, we ain’t get no pay. This holiday, what come and gone, if you see people who going at the office. He [the boss] keep telling we to come back tomorrow; that is he behaviour. For the holidays me ain’t even had a Christmas because this guy owes me.”

According to Persaud, he works without any days off and is not provided with any allowances for food or boarding when he leaves for the interior. Instead, he said that he would have to offset those expenses. The other drivers and porters are also faced with the same dilemma, he added.
However, Persaud said that this is not the first time he has had difficulties with payment from the company. He recalled that it happens every month, but in December 2020 “things got overbearing.” When asked why he continued to work for such an employer, Persaud remarked, “I need money, I have my children to look after.”
“Since last month I calling this guy and he ain’t answering me. He reading my messages on Whatsapp and he is not replying. Is a lot of people this man owes.”
Meanwhile, Havan Smith, who worked as a sawman, said that he started working with the company from October 10, 2020. He stated that the company owes him about $240,000 but he left the job on December 4, 2020, after he was not paid.
“First they gave me $30,000 and a next advance of $80,000 and before the holidays they gave me $50,000.” He is yet to receive the remainder of his salary. According to the father of two, he has placed numerous calls to his boss’ phone and the company’s office, but all have gone unanswered.
“I worked for the money, gave me my money. Give the other guys their money too. I am renting a house and then I have to pay light bill, I have to buy groceries. For the Christmas holidays, all the money they gave me is $50,000 and all went on my bills,” Smith added.
Another employer, who was employed as a porter, said that the company owes him $120,000. He spoke under the condition of anonymity. He disclosed that he started working with the company on September 9, 2020, and left the job in late November 2020, after the company failed to pay him. According to him, it was agreed that he would be paid $150,000 per month.
“When I go to the office, they telling me to wait downstairs and they going to get the boss. Sometimes I would wait there whole day and they would tell me come back tomorrow or the next day; so I stopped going,” the 23-year-old man related.
Like Persaud, Smith and the other employee were not given any employment contract.
The aggrieved men provided <<<Guyana Times>>> with a mobile number for their boss and another for the company’s office which they said is located aback Ruimvedlt Police Station in Georgetown.
Efforts made by this publication to get a comment from the company proved futile as calls to the numbers went unanswered. When calls were placed to the office, the female on the other end of the line related that the boss was unavailable.